Review: 'Surviving Christmas' Deserves Lump Of Coal
All-Star Cast Is Only Gift In Film
POSTED: 8:39 pm CDT October 24, 2004
'Surviving Christmas' (PG-13)
(out of four popcorns)There's a lot wrong with the movie "Surviving Christmas." Probably the worst thing about it is the fact that the producers actually thought that anyone would want to see a Christmas tale just before Halloween. But there's a method to the madness of releasing this film in October, rather than the usual holiday time. There isn't a lot of competition this week in theaters and the onslaught of holiday and kids movies is just around the corner.Basically, "Surviving Christmas" sat on a shelf for a couple of years. Ben Affleck filmed two movies since "Surviving Christmas" and both have already been in theaters and are already released on DVD – "Paycheck" with Uma Thurman and "Jersey Girl" with Jennifer Lopez.The all-star cast at least helps to revive this waste of time. It's a telling situation when the funniest line is one that Catherine O'Hara says she ad libbed. It's also a bad sign when it takes four writers to finally get the script to screen. Ben Affleck stars as Drew Latham, a guy with money to burn, although moviegoers never really do find out why except for an ad campaign he develops for fat free, spiked egg nog.Facing another Christmas alone, he goes back to his childhood home to relive his family holidays. When he arrives there, he finds a family living in his house, so he offers to pay them a grand sum of money to let him spend Christmas with them.James Gandolfini plays Tom Valco, an auto mechanic whose favorite pastime is drinking bottles of Bud and eating salami. His wife, Christine (played by O'Hara), is trying to revive the spark that's lost in her marriage. Meanwhile, their son, Brian, is holed up in his bedroom, watching porn on his computer. Daughter, Alicia, (played by Christina Applegate), enters the scene late and becomes the family member who wants to throw a large wrench in the dysfunctional family Christmas.Whether it was tension on the set or the fact that some of the scenes were filmed during one of the coldest winters on record in Chicago, "Surviving Christmas" never quite hits its mark. The performances are strained and it plays like a "Saturday Night Live" segment that should've never received any more screen time than a short skit. It probably would have fallen flat on "SNL," too.Any movie that tries to get a laugh out of a scene with a ham dropping on the floor and a cheese ball at the center of a joke needs to go direct to video.
(out of four popcorns)There's a lot wrong with the movie "Surviving Christmas." Probably the worst thing about it is the fact that the producers actually thought that anyone would want to see a Christmas tale just before Halloween. But there's a method to the madness of releasing this film in October, rather than the usual holiday time. There isn't a lot of competition this week in theaters and the onslaught of holiday and kids movies is just around the corner.Basically, "Surviving Christmas" sat on a shelf for a couple of years. Ben Affleck filmed two movies since "Surviving Christmas" and both have already been in theaters and are already released on DVD – "Paycheck" with Uma Thurman and "Jersey Girl" with Jennifer Lopez.The all-star cast at least helps to revive this waste of time. It's a telling situation when the funniest line is one that Catherine O'Hara says she ad libbed. It's also a bad sign when it takes four writers to finally get the script to screen. Ben Affleck stars as Drew Latham, a guy with money to burn, although moviegoers never really do find out why except for an ad campaign he develops for fat free, spiked egg nog.Facing another Christmas alone, he goes back to his childhood home to relive his family holidays. When he arrives there, he finds a family living in his house, so he offers to pay them a grand sum of money to let him spend Christmas with them.James Gandolfini plays Tom Valco, an auto mechanic whose favorite pastime is drinking bottles of Bud and eating salami. His wife, Christine (played by O'Hara), is trying to revive the spark that's lost in her marriage. Meanwhile, their son, Brian, is holed up in his bedroom, watching porn on his computer. Daughter, Alicia, (played by Christina Applegate), enters the scene late and becomes the family member who wants to throw a large wrench in the dysfunctional family Christmas.Whether it was tension on the set or the fact that some of the scenes were filmed during one of the coldest winters on record in Chicago, "Surviving Christmas" never quite hits its mark. The performances are strained and it plays like a "Saturday Night Live" segment that should've never received any more screen time than a short skit. It probably would have fallen flat on "SNL," too.Any movie that tries to get a laugh out of a scene with a ham dropping on the floor and a cheese ball at the center of a joke needs to go direct to video.Distributed by Internet Broadcasting Systems, Inc. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
